It was the start of the cold war - ie Blur vs Oasis. And riding high on the back of several hit singles came this, the fastest selling debut album ever in the UK. (Fun fact: the photo was taken in guitarist Bonehead's house. But you knew that, didn't you?)

2

The Shawshank Redemption

The uplifting prison movie that was the hit of the year - at least in terms of word-of-mouth reviews. (Fun fact: Stephen King sold the film rights for a dollar.)

3

Monster - R.E.M.

Warner

What Peter Buck described as "a 'rock' record, with the rock in quotation marks." And we can't argue with that. (Fun fact: it was one of the first albums to be promoted with online content. Imagine!)

Whether you were 4, 14 or 24 in 1994, we think you probably saw this... and/or bought some of the accompanying merchandise. (Fun fact: adult Simba's mane was inspired by Jon Bon Jovi's hair.)

5

Pulp Fiction

Arguably the most quoted film of 1994 - and almost certainly the one whose soundtrack was owned by the most students. (Fun fact: the film's producer Lawrence Bender makes a cameo as 'Long Hair Yuppy-Scum'.)

6

Carry On Up The Charts - The Beautiful South

If you didn't own any of The Beautiful South's previous four albums, then there's a strong chance you owned this greatest hits collection - the last number one album of 1994 and the year's second-biggest seller. (Fun fact: the US version also included a cover of 'Dream a Little Dream of Me'.)

7

True Lies

Arnie! On a horse! In a hotel! In a James Cameron movie! Not forgetting Jamie Lee Curtis doing a striptease. Marvellous. (Fun fact: the film's body count is 71.)

8

Vauxhall And I - Morrissey

EMI

His fourth solo album, and the one that cemented his solo career in the US. Not that we cared. Not while we were singing along to 'The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get'. (Fun fact: one song includes a line sampled from David Lean's 'Oliver Twist'.)

In which Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz... well, let's just say they 'arrived'. Boy, did they arrive. (Fun fact: Coco Bongo - the nightclub in the movie - is also the name of Carrey's nightclub in Cancun, Mexico.)

10

Dumb & Dumber

Did we mention that 1994 was the year that Jim Carrey arrived? (Fun fact: Steve Martin and Martin Short both turned down the role of Lloyd.)

11

MTV Unplugged In New York - Nirvana

Geffen Records

The show aired in December 1993 - and the ensuing album was the first Nirvana album released after the death of Kurt Cobain, who died in April. By 1997, it had gone five-times platinum in the States. (Fun fact: Nirvana filmed the entire performance in a single take.)

Back when Richard Curtis was best known for 'Blackadder' and the gorgeous stammering Hugh Grant wasn't really known at all. Wonderful. Apart from Wet Wet Wet going to number one for 15 weeks. (Fun fact: at the time, it was the highest-grossing British film in cinema history.)

13

Cross Road - Bon Jovi

Mercury Records

Their first greatest hits collection, and the best-selling album of the year, which included the new hit single 'Always'. (Fun fact: the diner on the cover is the Roadside Diner in Wall Township, New Jersey.)

Because long before sexy vampires hit our screens - and bookshelves - in the 'Twilight series', there was Brad and Tom... (Fun fact: Tom Cruise spent three and a half hours every day in the make-up chair.)

15

The Division Bell - Pink Floyd

EMI

They were back! After a seven year break! And so everyone bought this album, which went straight to number one in April and stayed there for four weeks. (Fun fact: Douglas Adams came up with the title.)

Serial killing had never looked so cool, thanks to both Jean Reno and Natalie Portman - who was just 11 when she was cast in the role of Mathilda. (Fun fact: Liv Tyler also auditioned for the role, but at 15 was considered too old for it.)

19

Forrest Gump

Life is like a box of chocolates - some of them will be terribly sickly sweet and bordering on right-wing. Hey ho! (Fun fact: Tom Hanks' younger brother doubled for him in many of the running sequences.)

20

Parklife - Blur

EMI

Remember the greyhounds? The singalong songs? The title track video starring Phil Daniels? (Fun/not so fun fact: it was nominated for the 1995 Mercury Prize, but lost to M People's 'Elegant Slumming'.)

The Game Boy. The PlayStation. The SEGA Mega Drive. Suddenly, we never needed to talk to our parents ever again. Except to ask them for one of these for Christmas.

Which you played on the aforementioned computer consoles. Super Mario Bros, Lemmings, Goldeneye, TETRIS, Pokémon, Kirby's Dream Land, Sonic The Hedgehog.... and more. Oh, so many more.

They burst onto the scene in 1996 - and our lives were (viva) forever changed. Was it their catchy songs? Their mini-dresses? Or their conveniently pigeonholed personality types?

In which Richard O'Brien (and later Ed Tudor-Pole) presided over teams of adventurers attempting "devious and fiendish games"... with varying degrees of success. If O'Brien didn't give you chills, the theme music would.

Yes, the game of cardboard discs originated in Hawaii in the 1920s - but in the 1990s it really came into its commercialised, addictive own. In fact, Pogs were so popular, some schools banned them. Boooo!

An hour of telly during which British schoolchildren could dream that they lived in Los Angeles, hung out on the beach every day and looked THIS good in Ray-Bans.

Of course, British schoolchildren didn't just dream of beaches in America. There was Australia, too. Altogether now: "You know we belong togeeeeetherrrr...."

Suddenly, wrestling was a WHOLE lot more exciting. In fact, scrap that. Telly was. LIFE was.

And its star. By which we do, of course, mean Mr Blobby. Which leads us nicely to...

...Mr Blobby performing his Christmas number one. And his wasn't the only assault on music in the 1990s - oh, no. Who can forget Macarena, Cotton Eye Joe, Three Lions, Barbie Girl, Teletubbies Say 'Eh-oh!' and Mambo No.5, to name but six? Sadly, none of us can.

Suddenly, you could listen to novelty pop singles anywhere!

From Mighty Morphin Power Rangers right through to Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. Boys and their toys, indeed.

What Gordon the Gopher had been to Philip Schofield, so Edd the Duck was to Andi Peters and Andy Crane. A silly, squeaking, utter delight. Edd, that is. Not Andi/Andy.

Suddenly, the question 'Do you want a water fight?' was a LOT more interesting. Fairy Liquid bottles be damned - this was the real, Schwarzenegger-style deal.

The replacement for Going Live! kept the tradition of Saturday morning, live studio kids' telly alive (and kicking) thanks to the likes of Andi Peters, Emma Forbes, Trevor And Simon and - here presenting their first show - Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston. Aww!

The Simpsons first aired on Sky One (and pretty much saved it) in 1990, moving to the BBC in 1996. British TV viewers had never seen the like of it. (But then, neither had American ones.)

As worn by every man, woman and child. But mostly: All Saints.

The Beatles/One Direction of the 1990s. Which was your favourite? (Ours was Mark. Of course. We're only human.)

The '90s were the Brits heyday: Jarvis Cocker vs Michael Jackson, Chumbawamba vs John Prescott, Geri Halliwell in a Union Jack dress. Here are M People accepting a Brit Award in 1994 wearing red AIDS ribbons. It doesn't get more '90s than that.

What Tony Hart was to '80s kids, so Neil Buchanan was to children of the '90s. Art Attack was one of the longest-running programmes on CiTV - and not just because of Buchanan's fine line in red Art Attack sweaters.

If they were good enough for Princess Diana, they were good enough for the rest of us. Pearls were a popular choice - see Di here - but as any self-respecting '90s girl knows, black velvet was also more than acceptable.

From Byker Grove to getting ready to rhumble - before Ant and Dec's TV presenting days, they were kid stars with a fine line in floppy hair, baseball caps and huge, huge clothing.

From the original Tamagotchis to the £5 knock-offs from the local market, no kid's pocket was complete in the 1990s if it didn't contain (a dead) one of these.

At last! A silly alternative to all the sensible breakfast TV shows. TBB made stars of Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin and featured the late, great Paula Yates. Here's a clip from Evans's last show: he left to make Don't Forget Your Toothbrush. And after that...

The theme from Man In A Suitcase. Reef singing 'It's Your Letters'. Will. Wiiiiiiiiiill! Who cares if it was for adults? Friday night telly had never been such teenagery fun.

Or as our American cousins called them: fanny packs. Everyone had one - even Mr Motivator here (posing with Cindy Crawford in an attempt to beat our M People-at-the-Brits picture for the title of Most '90s Photo Ever).

The Nineties were the decade of Britpop. And nobody quite epitomised Britpop like Blur. Well, except for...

So pick a team: were you a Blur or Oasis fan? You couldn't be both. Not in the '90s. Not unless you wanted to get into a fight over anoraks, or something.

The One Which Closes The '90s Slideshow. Yes, they were older than us. And they were American. But they made us aspire to an adult life filled with wisecracks, coffee shops and Jennifer Aniston hairstyles. Could they BE more influential?